The Superficial Nseries – Eseries Divide

Going over the recent Eseries launches, I couldn’t help but feel that there was just no answer to the E71 from the Nseries department, we have waited and we have waited but sadly there is still no Nseries QWERTY. What this will mean is that a lot of people who *like* their music and their pictures will look towards the E71 as a inviting proposition. Could the E71 pull it of? Yes! But have Nokia allowed it to? No!

What Nokia must understand and I think they do, is that when a consumer walks into a store to buy a phone he couldn’t care less whether this device is aimed at corporates or whoever for that matter, if he like it, he buys it. Evidence of this fact is the sales figures for the E65. It, if I am not wrong, was responsible for almost half the Eseries’ total sales. The E65 is the handset that you will see in the hands of normobs in the street, at least five people I know carry this phone and not one has anything to do with the target profile of the Eseries buyer.

IMAGING & AUDIO

I am perfectly fine with keeping the camera a little lower spec than the Nseries. Infact while you are at it, release camera free variants of these devices too as in a lot of business houses camera phones are ‘banned’. But please revamp the Gallery at least. There is still no ‘Slideshow’ option on a E90 inspite of its huge screen, the thumbnails takes ages to load and opening an image is quite a chore too. This really needs to change, how is the business user for whom this phone is intended being served? This can also not be brushed under the carpet stating price considerations.

The E71 and E66 come with a feature that allows a person to switch between work and a personal home screen, clearly they recognise businessmen have lives too. So why not extend this understanding a little further? Nokia must not continue to keep putting in a 2.5mm jack. A lot has been said about this already and I won’t blabber on and on but the bottomline remains if you can fit in a 2.5mm plug, then 3.5mm is a non issue too. On most occassions the device has been bought by an average Joe who couldn’t care about adapters and stuff and even if it has reached the businessmen it is aimed at, even they like decent music.

Plus, the headphones that ship with these devices are not even worthy of being taken out of the box. There is A2DP but why should I spend another 120$ or more to take advantage of my already 8 GB or more storage capable device. Again how is the consumer being served by this? Price here again is no argument.

PLAUSABLE DIFFERENTIATION

I am not even saying abolish the gap between these devices. Maintain the two line ups as you deem fit, but bring the core experience on both series to a certain common minimum. Instead of putting in these artificial differences, look at the enterprise software as the core variation.

Let the Eseries have support for document editing, push email systems, remote control, home screen switching, extra plugings and so on – out of the box, included in the cost. While the Nseries could have them as paid upgrades. This is a model Nokia is already following to a large extent but the niceties still need work.

What we are sure about is that this differentiation is here to stay, but the question is on what basis and where should the compromise be? Ideas?

Nice comparison. A feeling seconded by me. Its good from Nokia that they atleast stopped using the idiotic pop post. It screws up on a well maintained E61 too. Thankfully they have brought in a mini usb port.

I have been wondering how nokia manages to drop a good feature in replacement of another feature in newer editions? E71 is by far the closest device that i liked from their stable that satisfies all my wants. A bigger internal memory (4 to 5 gb or more) would make it perfect.